The Hot Dog Diaries

By KEN PLUTNICKI

Published: April 23, 2006

CORRECTION APPENDED

ON March 8, 2005, Eric Eisenbud logged on to eGullet.org, the popular food Web site, and announced his intentions. ''I'm in the planning stages of opening a hot dog joint,'' he wrote on the New Jersey discussion board. ''I know, another hot dog place?''

Like any first-time restaurateur, Mr. Eisenbud had an idea and a dream, but on that day he was just looking for a name. ''I turn to you, my esteemed partners in all things culinary, to dig deep into your creative centers and excavate the name of my new venture,'' he wrote.

Members of eGullet were glad to help. They had done this sort of thing before, coming up with the name Melt for a short-lived grilled cheese place in Jersey City. Among their suggestions this time were Perfectly Frank(s) and Furters, but when one member suggested Garden State Dogs, Mr. Eisenbud chafed. His vision went far beyond the Parkway.

So began the adventures of Amazing Hot Dog here in Verona, with Mr. Eisenbud, of West Orange, as the main character and narrator. And what a culinary saga it has been: a tale of all-beef dream made reality, unexpected early success and news media attention, a disastrous fire, and now the promise of reopening as soon as early May.

And all along, Mr. Eisenbud's posts on eGullet over the last year or so have presented readers with a play by play, in real time, of the ups and downs of a restaurant start-up.

''I'm not one to really keep stuff to myself,'' he said in a recent interview.

Mr. Eisenbud, 42, is a 1985 graduate of Johnson & Wales, but had never done much professionally with his culinary degree. He had worked for a while in his family's fuel oil business and once sold water coolers. ''I was the guy whose New Year's party was not to be missed,'' he said. He is also the president of a men's social club that cooks lavish dinners with the guidance of an invited chef.

One day he ran into a friend of his parents, and when the discussion turned to hot dogs, Stuart Applebaum said, ''You've got to meet my son.'' Matt Applebaum, 34, of Jersey City, had been laid off from his job as an institutional equity trader at Bear Stearns and was looking to open a simple restaurant. He had once been a partner in a bagel shop in West Orange.

By last May the two men were making road-food excursions and scouting locations, and Mr. Eisenbud began writing ''we'' rather than ''I.'' By June they had refined Mr. Eisenbud's original plan, killing the idea of serving all different kinds of dogs. They had settled on just one, an all-beef dog, four to a pound, from Best, in Newark. Optimistically, Mr. Eisenbud wrote, ''We could see our first happy customer by Oct. 1.''

On Aug. 20 Mr. Eisenbud announced that they had decided on a name (not one of those suggested on eGullet) and a location. They also had a logo suitable for franchising (a caped superhero with Elvis good looks) and a slogan: ''Prepare to be amazed.''

''It was an ongoing soap opera,'' said Ken Powell, of Glen Ridge, who followed the thread on eGullet. ''It was much like a TV show, and it was hard not to get caught up in it, the machinations: looking all over greater Montclair for a location, and he couldn't find one; and then the hot dog odors.''

The specter of odors delayed the opening for months. A neighbor behind the site was worried about smells, garbage and noise. The town heard his concerns before voting on a variance the restaurant needed to proceed. The owners hired a meteorologist, who testified that the odors would blow toward nearby homes only once or twice a month.

On Nov. 10 an electronic cheer went up when Mr. Eisenbud wrote: ''We have a restaurant people! We got approval by way of unanimous vote.''

Amazing Hot Dog turned out to be a 1,068-square-foot, 19-seat eatery in a Bloomfield Avenue strip mall. Start-up costs were under $150,000. The hot dogs were flash-fried, often served wrapped in bacon (the Amazing) and with unconventional toppings like cream cheese and scallions (My Schmiero) or fried egg and melted American cheese (Jersey Breakfast). The fries were cut in the store and twice fried.

The place opened on Jan. 16 and quickly had terrific buzz. The owners' public relations firm had sent out 200 media packets to coincide with the opening. ''EGulleters rallied around Amazing Hot Dog,'' said Allie Carson, of Montclair, whose computer screensaver is now a My Schmiero. ''It just seemed like they had a fun little place, a fun little idea.''

It quickly became a road-food destination, and on just its 12th day of business, a Friday, it received its first print review, in The Star-Ledger of Newark, and a television review, on WABC-TV. The owners were amazed, if not prepared. ''We ordered a thousand hot dogs to get through Saturday,'' said Mr. Applebaum, who had anticipated a surge in business on Saturday but was surprised by the crowds Friday night. ''We prepped all night. We were here till 1 a.m. Friday night. And from the second we opened at 11:02, to 5:30, we didn't look up.''

After all the hard work, the owners were embarrassed. By 6 p.m. they had run out of hot dogs. ''It's like the ocean running out of water,'' Mr. Eisenbud said. ''It killed me.'' They spent the final hours that night handing out cards good for free hot dogs and asking people to come back.

''It was crazy,'' said Michael Panitch, a dentist from West Orange, who ate there that day and waited about an hour for his order. ''You were wading through people to get to the counter. It was a scene.''

Afterward the owners had one employee just to bag orders and one just to clean the dining area. Mr. Applebaum said the restaurant handled similar volume afterward without problems. In fact, by late February, things were going so smoothly that the owners were discussing splitting their shifts so both of them did not have to work such long hours.

But on Feb. 25 a new thread appeared on eGullet's New Jersey forum: ''Fire at Amazing Hot Dog.'' Overnight, an electrical fire destroyed the restaurant, which had been open for only 40 days. ''It was cold, it was 3:30 in the morning, my insides were ripped out,'' Mr. Eisenbud said of the scene that morning. ''I still didn't envision the place would be a total loss and we'd be starting from scratch.''

The next day he posted a link to pictures of the destruction, thanked the community for its support and promised to reopen.

''You've been so forthright in sharing your restaurant experience, Eric, that the eGullet community can feel the pain,'' Mr. Powell wrote in response to the pictures. ''Keep your chin up, you'll be back.''

The owners said they plan to reopen with just a few changes, most noticeably a longer counter and an automatic condiment pump. Mr. Eisenbud said they might recognize the fire in some way, perhaps with a dog that's fiery and hot. Somebody on eGullet suggested calling it the Phoenix.

Amazing Hot Dog, 148A Bloomfield Avenue, Verona (973) 433-3073.

Photo: The soot-covered interior of Amazing Hot Dog in Verona, which closed after a fire in February. The owners vow to be back, spreading joy and condiments. (Photo by Richard Perry/The New York Times)

Correction: May 21, 2006, Sunday
An article on April 23, about Amazing Hot Dog in Verona, misstated the hometown of Matt Applebaum, one of the restaurant's owners. He is from Springfield, N.J., not Jersey City.